Voter Registration

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

Intent

To ensure that the voter registration system supports election integrity.

Proposal

A voter registration form shall indicate the current date, the voter’s current address as of the date of registration to be used for selecting the geographical voting district; the voter’s special circumstances, if any, to be used for selecting a non-geographical voting district; the state where the voter most recently registered to vote, or a checkbox to indicate this is the voter’s first registration. The voter registration form shall have a section where the registrar indicates their name and location and certifies that they have reviewed the voter’s proof of identity, proof of citizenship, and proof of residence in person and that the voter has satisfied all evidence requirements for registration.

To register to vote in a geographical voting district, a citizen must appear in person to a registrar with the required evidence of eligibility. The registrar will then forward the voter registration to the secretary of state.

To register to vote in a non-geographical voting district, a citizen must appear in person to registrar of the organization through which the voter will cast their vote with the required evidence of eligibility, to which the registrar will add their own statement of the voter’s eligibility relying on the organization’s records. The registrar will then forward the voter registration to the appropriate secretary of state.

A state or regional or local government may process voter registration in conjunction with other administrative functions such as obtaining a state identification card, a motor vehicle license, applying for a passport, or receiving welfare, or it may be establish designated voter registration stations with appropriate resources and staffing to process voter registrations.

The registrar must check and confirm the voter’s state identification card for evidence of age and citizenship and local residence. The registrar must take a photo of the voter being registered and attach the photo to the voter registration.

The registrar must use only the address on the identification as the residence address. If the voter has moved since obtaining the identification card, the voter must first update their state identification before registering to vote, unless the registrar’s office is also a designated clerk to process requests for state identification cards in which case the voter may present other evidence of residence at the new address and the registrar can both process the request for the updated identification card and the updated voter registration at the same time.

A voter registration is valid for at most 5 years and 90 days. To help people remember to renew their registration, the voter registration shall be set to expire thirty days after the voter’s next birthday where their age is a multiple of five.

A person knowingly transmitting a false registration or de-registration to any registrar or secretary of state should be charged with a felony misdemeanor.

A person knowingly and intentionally registering in multiple voting districts with intent to vote multiple times in the same election should be charged with a felony misdemeanor.

A court sentencing a defendant with a felony shall inform the secretary of state of the sentence so the secretary of state can cancel the convicted felon’s voter registration. The convicted felon may then register to vote again after serving their sentence.

A voter may be registered in one voting district at a time, and such registration will be used for the next election and subsequent elections until the voter registers in another voting district.

Voter registration shall be processed by the secretary of state.

Definitions

A registrar is a local clerk or an employee or volunteer assigned to a designated voter registration station who is trained in processing voter registration applications.

Discussion

Voting is for citizens. A person claiming to be a citizen should be able to provide evidence of this, such as a birth certificate and state identification, passport, naturalization certificate or other documents. It is the voter’s responsibility provide this evidence. However, a registrar who already has access to evidence should not unnecessarily burden voters to obtain and confirm the evidence.

The limited duration of a voter registration is intended to limit the possibility that someone can cast a ballot on behalf of a deceased or moved-out-of-the-district voter.

The registrar should also check with other districts to ensure the person is only registered to vote in a single district for an election. The most recent valid registration should replace any prior registrations.

Government offices have records of documents they issue to citizens. Therefore, if a citizen has lost their
documents it is possible to recover. It is the citizen’s responsibility to keep a copy of their documents in a safe place. If they don’t, and they miss an election because they didn’t have evidence and they moved to a new district where they weren’t already registered, that is their consequence, and they can recover and vote in the next election.

The local registrar must share new voting registrations with the secretary of state. The secretary of state must maintain a roster of all voter registrations in the state. When a voter moves to a new district and registers there, and the registrar informs the secretary of state, the secretary of state must notify the voter’s prior district and that district, upon notification that a voter has registered elsewhere, must remove that voter from its rolls. If the voter’s last residence was in a different state, the secretary of state must inform the secretary of state of the voter’s last residence, who would then transmit the de-registration to that voter’s last voting district.

It is not a crime for a person to register in multiple locations in sequence, because people are free to move and change their residence, but only their most recent valid registration should be usable. This is why the voter registration form must have a date on it — the registration with the most recent date will be used to resolve any conflicts.

It should be a felony to knowingly register in multiple districts with intent to vote multiple times in the same election, but the prosecutor must prove that the person knew that this was happening, to avoid convicting someone who was framed by someone else registering them in multiple districts. To assist in proving this beyond a reasonable doubt, and also in clearing the name of anyone who was framed for this crime, voter registration must be in person and a photo must be taken of the person registering to vote.

See also voter eligibility.

Voter suppression

Some people claim that demanding evidence of citizenship to register to vote is a form of voter suppression, but this argument is weak. Election regulations exist to ensure the integrity of the election. Only citizens who are residents of the voting district are allowed to cast their vote there. Therefore, checking citizenship and residency status is an obvious and effective way to ensure that only eligible citizens are voting, and can be enhanced with other practices such as sharing voting registrations with other districts and states to identify anyone who registered multiple times and only allow them to vote using their most recent valid registration.

Furthermore, since this topic has been discussed for many years, it should not be news to anyone that only citizens are eligible to vote and if someone doesn’t have their documents to register in the current election, they can work on recovering their documents so they can participate in the next election.

It is possible for corrupt officials to attempt to suppress votes of the other party by changing a rule shortly before the election such that voters who are likely to vote for the other party would have a higher obstacle to vote. Requiring evidence of citizenship is just one possible obstacle that could be implemented this way just before an election. For this reason, there should be a limit about how close to the election a rule can be changed (and some states do have such limits). The best time to implement rule changes is immediately after an election so that everyone has time to adjust before the next election.

Related topics

* Voting Districts
* Voter Eligibility

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